Get ready for some truly 'ahead-of-its-time' jams in this edition. Sorry for the lack of photos, but Sam was a way bigger camera nerd when he was a kid. Here you go:
None The Less:
When I was 15, my "punk" friends and I heard 'Petitioning the Empty Sky' by Converge for the first time. I was all, "dudes. let's start a metalcore band" and they were like, "yeaah!" My dad owned a haunted carpet store/former hospital in a small town an hour west of Minneapolis. We practiced in the basement and we recorded our first and only demo on a $20 used 4-track with 1 microphone. The most amazing part of this recording is when we switch from clean to distortion. The other guitar player and I played through Metal Zones with the distortion completely dimed, but with the volume set kind of low. When we were supposed to get bigger, the volume would drop about 4 notches. Fucking amazing.
None The Less - "Demo" (1997?)
Hero's Drive:
Remember that christian band Sam mentioned in the last post? Well this is it. I just wanted to play music and I've never been a person to care about lyrics at all, so I just played guitar and didn't think or care about anything else. Years later, my friend/roommate-at-the-time Nick (who was also in the next band I'll post) and I were giving each other shit about old bands we were in and he brought up the name of this record. I had no idea what he was talking about and he said, "'Seriously. It was called 'End So Near, Flame So Clear'. I always took that as, 'we're all going to die soon and you're going to hell.'" I ran to my room and picked up the CD. Sure enough, that was the name. I'm sure (hope) it wasn't intended to mean 'GET READY FOR HELL, SINNERS', but it was still pretty hilarious.
Hero's Drive - "End So Near, Flame So Clear" (1999?)
*Side note: I apologize if any members of this band stumble upon this and get pissed. I think we can all look back and laugh at this record by now.
Tora! Tora! Torrance!:
Say what you will about this band, but my memories during these years are some of my best memories ever and I was also able to travel to 40-some states by the time I was 23. We had a record contract to sign before we had a name. When we were trying to quickly think up band names, our old guitarist said, "I know. We can be called Get Into It." There was an awkward silence in the van and then he says, "Oh wait. That's terrible." We laughed about it and then when we were thinking of album names for our first record, one of us said, "I know. We should call it 'Get Into It'." I think we all thought we were joking until we actually went through with it. Nick Koenigs and I were the only 2 original members by the time the band broke up. I think we went through 16 or 17 members total. Were we assholes? Probably. I think our old label owns the 2 albums we recorded for them, so I'm not going to post them because I don't enjoy being sued. Here is everything else I have that we recorded. Demos, unreleased songs, live recordings, etc.
Tora! Tora! Torrance - 'Demos' (2004)
Tora! Tora! Torrance! - 'Unreleased Final Recording' (2004) - These are a few songs from the last link that actually got finished before we broke up. Recorded by Neil Weir at the Old Blackberry Way.
Tora! Tora! Torrance! - 'Everything Else' (2001-2004) - This has our first thing we ever recorded in 2001, some live shows, a live radio thing, our song from a split with Swing By Seven and demos and alternate mixes of songs from 'A Cynic's Nightmare'.
Huge Rat Attacks:
I hadn't played music for about a year, so I asked my friends if I could join their band. I joined and we recorded a record called 'Cougars' in a barn in Mankato. For some reason, when I joined the band, we were completely unable to write any more songs, so we broke up and Justin moved to Los Angeles. This band may be doing more stuff in the near future. Who knows?
Huge Rat Atacks - 'Cougars' (2005)
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